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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23244979">Do You Remember When We First Met?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val9000/pseuds/Val9000'>Val9000</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Can't stop thinking about these guys, F/F, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, I don't think enough for the tag but just be wary, I plan to add more to this but Bette/Betty isn't here right now, MINOR DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLENCE, Monster Hunting Family, Slice of Life, Sort Of, it's a lil graphic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:14:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,733</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23244979</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val9000/pseuds/Val9000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sam stole their dad’s car it wasn’t for any one reason. Even half restored, they thought the car was cool. And if Sam was going to be an adult, they’d need a car. Only adults were allowed to drive, and if Sam had a car that meant they could drive, which therefore meant they were an adult. And also maybe there was a bit of spite involved in the decision as well. </p><p>They stole the gun for the same reasons.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Betty | Bette &amp; Sam (Rusty Quill Gaming), Betty | Bette/Cleo (Rusty Quill Gaming), Cleo &amp; Sam (Rusty Quill Gaming)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Just sort of slice of life type fics? I don't know how many of these I'll do so may or may not continue to update this. Anyway this one is about Sam and Cleo's first meeting hope you enjoy! (Also, I'm the only one reading/editing this so please forgive any mistakes.)</p><p> </p><p>Spoilers but if you guys are wondering about the violence:<br/>-Cultist gets hit by a car<br/>-Blood, lots of it<br/>-Stabbing<br/>-Broken leg<br/>-Burning a body</p><p>None of this is described in much detail though.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Sam stole their dad’s car it wasn’t for any one reason. Even half restored, they thought the car was cool. And if Sam was going to be an adult, they’d need a car. Only adults were allowed to drive, and if Sam had a car that meant they could drive, which therefore meant they were an adult. And also maybe there was a bit of spite involved in the decision as well.</p><p>They stole the gun for the same reasons.</p><p>And could it even <em>really</em> be called stealing if it’s the child that takes it? This is just… borrowing. For an extended and indefinite period of time. That’s what they’d tell the cops at least, if asked. They know perfectly well that they’re never going back. They’re eighteen, after all. Definitely eighteen. <em>Basically</em> eighteen. Why would they stay at home after eighteen? Their hands tighten on the wheel. And why would they go back when their father yelled at them?</p><p>They need to find a hotel. Somewhere to stay for the rest of the night. They’re on a road that should be fairly empty – being in the middle of a forest and all – but the headlights aren’t working and Sam’s technically never driven before. They probably should’ve left during the day or something. But the night was definitely the best time to leave without rousing the suspicion of their father. And there’s no one else on the roads anyway at this time of night so they’ll probably be fine. They’d rather put up with some broken headlights and a dark road than-</p><p>There’s the distinct feeling of the car hitting something and Sam slams on the breaks.</p><p>And god, they wish their headlights worked properly now. Should they go out and check on that? Should they just leave? It may be dark, but they definitely see the lump of a person – or something shaped like a person – in the middle of the road a couple of metres away.</p><p>Not moving.</p><p>Oh god.</p><p>This running away thing couldn’t have gone any worse, could it? They can’t call the police – they’re supposed to be avoiding the police. But they also can’t just let this person die. Just as they start getting out of the car, they see another person - a woman - stand up and start walking. And that’s… good. She can deal with it. She looks… adult.</p><p>“Oh my god I am so sorry! Is that like, your mate or something?”</p><p>The woman turns to look at them and blinks in surprise. “How old are you?”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“How old are you?”<br/>
<br/>
“I’m eighteen!” Their voice does <em>not</em> crack thank you very much. “Is that your mate?”</p><p>“What? No!” Even with the dark lighting they can see the look of disgust on her face. “Just. Thanks for the help, kid.”</p><p>“I’m not- I’m eighteen!” Then the rest of the sentence catches up. “Wait, hang on. What do you mean? Should I go find a phone or something and call the ambulance?”</p><p>The body starts to move but then slumps back down. It’s enough to catch the woman’s focus.</p><p>“No just- just leave!” She waves her hands in a shooing motion vaguely towards them, but they know she’s mostly focused on the body. “I’ll take it from here.”</p><p>“What does that mean?” No answer. She starts creeping forward towards the body. And- holy shit is that a knife in her hands? “Uh… I’m Sam!”</p><p>“Cleo.” She breaks her focus just long enough to send a quick glare over her shoulder towards them. “And keep your voice down!”</p><p>“Are you going to kill that guy?” They make sure to whisper. Best not to anger the woman with the knife. Should they get their gun out or something?</p><p>“It’s not a ‘guy’!” She hisses. “It’s a monster. And I’m going to kill it before it can hurt anyone else.”</p><p>“Wicked…”</p><p>“It's not- Just leave! Before it wakes up properly.” She’s halfway to the monster now.</p><p>Sam decides to get out their gun. They have no clue how to use it but there’s no way they’re missing the opportunity to kill a monster. As soon as Cleo gets to it though, it jumps up with surprising speed and throws her to the ground. Sam can’t stop themself from yelping at the sudden movement and the monster goes from standing over Cleo to sprinting towards them.</p><p>And, okay, maybe they should’ve just left because now they’re going to get attacked and possibly eaten by a monster and that is just so far from the way they pictured this night going. They scramble with the gun – is it even loaded? – and try to pull the trigger.</p><p>Nothing happens.</p><p>Except for the sharp pain in their arms and the blooming warmth of blood as the monster claws at them, and god – when did they close their eyes? Then there’s a loud thud which just barely cuts through the pounding of their heart. And nothing else happens.</p><p>They become aware of the how tightly they’re clutching the gun first. Then they become aware of the distinct sound of stabbing – something they’ve never heard before but there’s really no mistaking it. A dull, wet sound.</p><p>They open their eyes. And see the monster on the road with Cleo crouching over it, stabbing it over and over again. It would be enough to make anyone sick, but Sam is basically eighteen. They can handle something… as lowkey as brutal murder. Well, they better be able to since they don’t think they could look away even if they tried. Instead, staring transfixed and Cleo stabs and stabs and stabs. Until finally she’s satisfied that it’s dead.</p><p>“You should’ve left.” Is all she says, blood staining her clothes and running down her hands.</p><p>They grip the gun tightly and watch as the blood pools into the cracks of the road. “Well, I uh… that was mental.”</p><p>“Look, we need to burn this. Can you help me drag it to the forest?” She gestures to the bloody mess of a body. And they can… they can deal with this.</p><p>They weren’t sure what they were going to do with their life after they ran away – but this has to be it, right? This must be fate or something, meeting her here and like this. They can hunt monsters with Cleo. It sounds so much cooler than things like school and work. And all the people in their old neighbourhood would be so jealous. This is just the first test. If they prove themself now, they can probably join Cleo in monster hunting. Cleo definitely looks like a professional, getting out a small bottle of liquid and some matches from a bag thrown near the edge of the forest. Yeah. If they start monster hunting with her, they’ll be a pro in no time.</p><p>“I can help!” With a little bit of difficultly, they uncurl their fingers from around the gun and try as subtly as possible to stretch out the stiffness in their fingers while putting it back in the car. There’s a sliver of panic that shoots through them when they close the door but they suppress it. They’ll be with Cleo. Cleo knows what to do. The gun doesn’t even work properly yet, anyway.</p><p>Cleo grabs the body by the armpits and Sam picks up the ankles. One of the legs is bent at an odd angle from when it got hit by their car. Sam can see the white of bone. They try not to look at it.</p><p>They walk quite a bit away from the road, and Sam almost stumbles over several roots in the darkness. Cleo appears to fine though, even as she walks backward. When they get to a small clearing, Cleo drops the body. So Sam does as well. They try to ignore the thump of it hitting the ground. And when it burns, the forest is lit up. And in between the distorted shadows, Sam swears they see someone else standing in the trees. A woman. Just watching them. She disappears as soon as they blink though, and they chalk it up to nerves.</p><p>The body smells awful as it burns. Sam’s not entirely sure whether that’s because it’s supernatural, because of the other stuff Cleo did right before she started the fire, or because that’s just how human bodies smell when set on fire. They briefly wonder whether monster bodies would look different to human bodies when they burn. But that would mean looking and they’re definitely not bold enough to do that. Cleo’s looking, though. She’s staring like she’s worried that it’ll disappear. It’s probably for the best that one of them is. This’ll just be something they’ll need to get used to.</p><p>Cleo is silent the whole way through. When the fire finally starts to die down, she turns to look at them. She looks tired. And very sad.</p><p>“Thanks, kid.” She turns to start walking back to the road and Sam follows quickly after her.</p><p>“That was wicked!” Now that the silence is broken, the feel as though they can voice the thoughts in their head. “Do you do that often?”</p><p>Now she looks tired and annoyed, but most people look at Sam with annoyance so they don’t pay much attention to it. “Yes. There are more out there.”<br/>
<br/>
“Monsters?”</p><p>“Cultists. Monsters, too. But they’re not what I’m really after.”</p><p>“That’s wild! Can I help?”</p><p>She stops suddenly and Sam runs into her, mostly in their effort to <em>avoid</em> running into her. She stares at them for a long time. Then shrugs. “Alright.”</p><p>“Wicked!” They restrain themself from jumping in joy. They’re supposed to be an adult, after all. “I have a car and everything. This is gonna be great!</p><p>Cleo resumes walking. “Should you even be driving?”</p><p>“I mean- really it looks worse than it is! It works perfectly fine, other than like… some of the lights? But we don’t really need those.”</p><p>“That’s… not what I meant.” She sighs. “Okay, fine. Do you have a house or something?”</p><p>“I, um, was going to ask <em>you </em>that actually.” They try to sound casual. “I was just going to get a room at the nearest hotel tonight.”</p><p>She raises her eyebrows. “Do you even have <em>money</em>?” Then she shakes her head and ducks it, but Sam swears they see a fond smile on her face. It stops their stuttered response right in its tracks as a feeling of giddiness overcomes them. Their heart is going to need surgery or something after how much its pace has fluctuated over the night. They don’t remember the last time anyone looked at them with fondness. And Sam has only just met Cleo, but they don’t think they’ll ever leave her. They almost miss her next words, their head still reeling with pleased shock. “Never mind. I’ll pay. Now come here and let me clean those wounds.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Cleo and Sam have a talk about being LGBT+</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Despite being nb I don't know a lot about the history of nb people so I'm not sure what it was like in 1970s or if they had words for it or not but Sam knows their gender and Cleo and Betty know as well so I'm just trying to keep it vague and it also means they definitely talked about it.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s a couple of nights since they first met when Cleo finally asks.</p>
<p>“So what about your family?” She’s carefully not looking at them, instead focusing on washing clothes in the hotel bathroom sink. Trying to be casual about it, they suppose.</p>
<p>Well, two can play at that game. “What about them?” They don’t look at her as they hang the clothes to dry. It’s difficult to find places that don’t look like they’ll just make the clothing dirty again so at least they have a plausible excuse.</p>
<p>There’s a long pause before Cleo continues. “I know you’re a lot younger than you say you are, kid.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” They sound as indignant as they can muster. It wouldn’t do to break the façade, after all. Even for Cleo. “I just look young. It’s a good thing, you know. Everyone says that when I’m thirty I’ll look twenty!”</p>
<p>“It’s okay if you ran away.” She turns to look at them now, but that doesn’t mean Sam will meet her eyes. “You know that, right?”</p>
<p>They stay silent. It’s not something they particularly want to talk about – or even think about. They left their family. Far behind in the past and that’s where they should stay. Cold drops of water land on their foot and they realise they’re clutching a wet shirt far too tightly. They release it, and start hanging it up but they know Cleo saw.</p>
<p>She takes a deep breath in. “Sam, you’re… very androgynous. Looking at you now, I can’t tell whether you’re a very boyish girl, or a very girlish boy. And you’ve never really indicated.”</p>
<p>They’ve run out of clothes to hang up because Cleo’s stopped washing. They’ve run out of something to do with their hands – a way to pretend this conversation isn’t really happening. There’s nowhere to hide in the cramped bathroom and Sam would have to squeeze past Cleo to get to the door. And maybe the bathroom feels smaller than it actually is because…</p>
<p>Because Cleo’s noticed.</p>
<p>She knows there’s something wrong with them and she’ll yell just like their father did and Sam’s going to have to run away again. They’ve run out of things to do with their hands so they clutch them together instead and try not to shrink back against the wall. It’s a very dirty wall. Wouldn’t want to add more clothes to the wash pile.</p>
<p>“It’s okay. Sam, it’s- it’s okay if you’re not… what everyone thinks you are. You can tell me. I just want to know so I don’t hurt you like I’m assuming your family hurt you.”</p>
<p>Sam clutches their fingers tighter and tries not to cry. Despite their efforts, their voice still comes out wobbly. “I’m not a boy or a girl.”</p>
<p>“And that’s fine!” Cleo places a gentle hand on their shoulder. Cleo rarely does anything gently. “I’ve met people like that before. You’re not wrong for feeling that way… and you’re not alone. I’ve just been using gender neutral pronouns – is that correct?”</p>
<p>Sam nods, not trusting themself to speak. And then before Cleo can stop them, they dart in for a hug. They pull back before Cleo can get a chance to reciprocate and wipe at their eyes. “You can’t tell anyone.”</p>
<p>“I won’t.” She hesitates. “And I have a secret for you. One that you can’t tell anyone.”</p>
<p>They don’t even attempt to look disinterested.</p>
<p>“I… like women. The way I should like men. I had a partner who was a woman.” Cleo takes a steading breath, like maybe she’s also on the verge of crying. “And I loved her more than I could ever love a man.”</p>
<p>“Oh.” They weren’t really expecting that and the next words tumble out of their mouth before they can stop them. “My dad says that’s bad.”</p>
<p>Cleo sighs and looks like she's trying to be patient with them. “Well, your dad is wrong.”</p>
<p>“I know that!” They say hastily. They wouldn’t want Cleo to think they agree it’s just… “It’s still weird isn’t it? Not just you! But me too.”</p>
<p>Cleo takes a while to answer and they feel as though maybe they said something wrong. That maybe this will be the last straw and they’ll have to run away anyway. “I guess it is, in a way. It’s not… the general norm. But it’s not a bad weird.”</p>
<p>“Okay.”</p>
<p>“Just like you can’t really change the fact that you’re not a boy or a girl, I can’t change the fact that I like women. Neither of them are wrong.”</p>
<p>They nod. “Okay.”</p>
<p>“If you want to learn more I can tell you. But not right now. It’s getting late.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, maybe if we were kids!” They find themself biting back a yawn, though. Now that Cleo mentions it, they are quite tired. They suppose emotional conversations will do that.</p>
<p>There’s a fond smile on Cleo’s face. And then this time she hugs them and doesn’t let go. She does, however, use the fact that she’s bigger and stronger than them to pick them up and drag them to their bed. She hesitates, then presses a kiss to their forehead. “Goodnight, kid.”</p>
<p>And then she turns the light off. Sam hears sheets rustle and loud creaking as Cleo gets into her own bed.</p>
<p>“What was her name?” Sam whispers.</p>
<p>It takes so long for Cleo to answer that Sam thinks maybe she fell asleep. Or didn’t hear.</p>
<p>“Bette.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you enjoyed! A lot shorter than the other one sorry guys. Also I have one or two more scenes for chapters that I might clean up/edit for posting soon-ish so despite being technically completed I may add more chapters. Those ones will include Betty/Bette.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you guys enjoyed! Will never stop thinking about Sam running away from their family and the implications behind that.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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